Not Tested – Has yet to be requested or there is some limitations to prevent accurate test results

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Price: Free

A. Installation AVG – 3.0 “Average“ – This aspect of AVG has almost completely collapsed, in on itself. I am very sad to report that all thou AVG Free Anti-Virus 2013 is way better in the installation department. Then AVG Internet Security 2013. Which without any reservations is an huge epic fail. On most systems.

C. Stability Of Program – 4.5 “Great” – The UI (User Interface) is still can be slow to load up.

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D. Has AVG Free Been Compromised By Hackers Or Virus – 3.0 “Average” – Still quite a few issues reported. But mostly on older operating systems such as XP and Vista. Also a very common false positive has been fixed. That issue being the Auto-run Trojan when inserting new unformatted USB sticks.

E. Speed of Scan – 5.0“Excellent“ – Very quick on most computers.

F. Updating – 3.5 “Average” – Automatic updating is fine. But if you want to manually update your AVG. Expect some epic slowness. I’m still not sure why. I have often run into times where it will stall on 30%, or 50% and it seem like forever before you get the 100% completed notice.

G. Does AVG Free Do Automatic Updates By ItselfWithout Any Issue – 5.0“Excellent“ – Yes, you can now with, no doubt. But leave the manual update option alone unless you want to invite stability related issues.

H. Internet Browser Cookie Detection Rate And Removal Test – 2.0“Poor“– You are way better off with something like SUPERAntiSpyware or CCleaner that is more dedicated to removal of Internet cookies. AVG Internet cookie detection rate is terrible even with the option active and checked off.

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1. Anti-Virus Detection Rate Test:

1A. Windows XP – 2.0 “Poor“

1B. Windows Vista – 3.0 “Average“

1C. Windows 7 – 3.0 “Average“

1D. Windows 8 – 4.0 “Great”

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2. Residential Shield Test – 3.0 “Average“ – I still find AVIRA and AVAST seems to grab the virus way before AVG does.

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Computers Protection

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3A. Anti-VirusScanner – 3.5 “Average” – AVG is barely scoring an average in this respect. And that should tell you a lot.

3B. Anti-Rootkit Scanner – 4.0 “Great” – Great option. Works well.

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Web Browsing Protection

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4A. Link Scanner – 4.5 “Great“ – Not a fan. But it can be very useful to some.

4B. Online Shield – Not available In the Free Version

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Identity Protection

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5A.Identity Protection – Not available In the Free Version

5B. Identity Alert – Not available In the Free Version

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E-mail Protection

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6A. E-mail Scanner – 3.0 “Average” – Utterly baseline and average. I found no use for it.

6B. Anti-Spam – Not available In the Free Version

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Firewall

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7. Firewall – Not available In the Free Version

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Extra Features

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8. Fix Performance (AKA. PC Analyzer) – 0.5 “Abysmal“- If you don’t mind that you only can fix your errors for free once then great. But if you are like me and you probably feel this options is both somewhat misleading and out right bait to buy this extremely expensive add-on. Then you are probably with me on my conclusion.

9. Mobile Protection – N/A – This option is pretty much just a bullet point reminder. As you can download the AVG Free Smart Phone app from the Google Play Store.

10. Speed Test – 5.0 “Excellent” – I found this addition to be very useful and very accurate as well. If only all speed tests apps/programs and or sites were this worry free.

11. AVG Direct Support – 0.5 “Abysmal” – With only a free forum and a phone number to call for support.

You will often find yourself ether being told to go to the free forum or they will recommend you go to further specialized support via Tech Buddy. Which like I said above is a MONEY GRAB. Completely worthless as well as falsely advertised and very overall misleading.

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My Overall Score: 62/100

62 % = C

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My Final Verdict– AVG Free Anti-Virus 2013 takes what it once was good and flips it on its head. It presents itself as a new more user friendly version of its past AVG iterations. This version of AVG and I’m talking about all AVG 2013 versions. Are clearly tailored first to Windows 8 and then to Windows 7. If you don’t have ether. Then you maybe as disappointed as I was. When I first upgraded and switched over to AVG 2013.

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Hi Kirbe, Thank you for this review. Like many others out here, I have been waiting for this review since January as I still run the 2012 version, and was surprised at the final verdict. Therefore, I am thinking of changing to Avira or Avast free. Never have used either before. At this point in time, which one would you recommend. I guess I can’t run on the 2012 AVG forever. Perhaps other viewers out there would like to know too.

Your more then welcome for the review. I’m sorry we were unable to get it up earlier. We just had so many issues with AVG. Even thou AVG Free Anti-Virus 2013 was less of an issue they the paid version of AVG 2013.

Q: At this point in time, which one would you recommend ?

Answer: Well even thou AVAST is killing AVIRA and AVG in both detection rate and overall downloads as you can clearly see via CNET’s own weekly download numbers. I have to say AVIRA, but only because AVAST is a beast when it comes to hogging resources. It may have improved since, I last saw it. But I doubt it very much as it still has the 13 or 14 filters that run all the time on your PC. So it has a rather big foot print. And if you are running an older computer. Or a computer that has not been optimized you’ll see your computer chug hard at times.

But saying that there are downsides to my pick which would be AVIRA 2013. As it has a lot of ads and it has a lot of additional it install by default like a toolbar. That often people forget to opt- out of.

Right, now I know that a few of the (CSW) team. Run a few different variations of virus protection.

*Myself I run AVG 2013 Free, AVIRA Free, SUPERAntispyware Free and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free. I would run Spybot but there is a conflict between AVIRA and Spybot.

Just a heads up with Remy’s setup he only allows AVG Internet Security 2013 to do automatic scans and he uses the always on spybot free residential shield. Other wise he does all scans manually even thou he is able to run scans automatically via the Paid versions of SUPERAntispyware and IObit Malware Fighter. Also important to note. AVG 2013 both free and paid and IObit Malware Fighter do not play well together. So when ever he logs on to his computer he opens it up. Then shuts it down before he logs off. Other wise you may run into a blue screen or your computer may randomly reboot.